Conference Presentations

Smaller-Scale Web Sites Need Performance Testing Too!

Even a smaller-scale Web site requires careful planning and execution of performance tests. Making the critical decisions in a timely manner and identifying the performance goals are still prerequisites to a successful test. However, smaller sites don't necessarily have the resources required to do large-scale testing, so compromises have to be made. This requires good test planning. The instructor explains the testing of a small site looking to grow, as well as the successes and pitfalls of achieving reasonable goals.

  • Define the test objectives; what's reasonable?
  • Plan the test then utilize tools, choices, and tradeoffs effectively
  • Apply and understand the results
Dale Perry, Software Quality Engineering
Is Your Haystack Missing a Needle?

Using manual testing to determine if your application is missing any files is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack: it's like trying to determine if your haystack is missing any needles! One tester tells the story of how some clever coding saved his project a good deal of time and quite a few headaches.
Chris McMahon's picture Chris McMahon
October 13, 2004
Between the Lines

Get the software engineering slant on items from the recent news.
Heather Shanholtzer's picture Heather Shanholtzer
October 13, 2004
Comparatively Speaking

Turn to The Last Word, where software professionals who care about quality give you their opinions on hot topics. This month, see why one practitioner believes there's no such thing as a best practice.
Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
October 13, 2004
Is That a Fact?

We're pleased to bring you technical editors who are well respected in their fields. Get their take on everything that relates to the industry, technically speaking. In this issue, read about the importance of recognizing inconvenient facts—and how finding a way to change them could be the key to success.
Brian Marick
October 12, 2004
Walk into My Parlor

Just as a spider spins a web to capture her prey, testers weave an intricate net of ambiguity and conflict to catch program bugs. Find out how to use complex tests to expose program weaknesses and errors.
David Holmgren
October 12, 2004
Don't Just Break Software. Make Software

What if, instead of using tests to try to break software, we used tests to make software? That's the vision of storytest-driven development. We spoke to people who spend each day turning wishful thinking into working products. Find out how they do it.
Tracy Reppert's picture Tracy Reppert
September 29, 2004
Web Application Performance Testing with the Open Source Hyades Project

What if you could build and run multi-user performance tests with a free, open source tool? Then, this coming Monday, you could validate multi-user application performance before deploying your application to your users, automate performance tests without spending money, and add additional features and capabilities to the
performance test tool as desired. Join Jeff Robbins to learn about two open source tools, Eclipse and Hyades.
Jeff Robbins, IBM Rational Software Group
Why Software Quality Assurance Practices Become Evil!

Are your organization's software quality assurance practices (SQA) working well? Would some developers even say they cause discomfort or are destructive? If so, maybe you are focusing too much on the processes and not enough on the underlying principles. Based on his 35 years of being involved in almost every aspect of the software development business from programmer to CEO, Greg Pope shares his eight principles for good software. You'll learn about a quantitative, risk-based approach to tailor these principles into appropriate practices. By employing a context-driven approach to select the right practices for each application and project, you'll go along way toward making customers and developers appreciate the value and benefits of SQA principles and practices.

  • Symptoms of "evil" SQA practices
  • Eight principles for good software development
Gregory Pope, Univ. of California / Lawrence Livermore National Laboritory
Fault Injection to Stress Test Windows Applications

Testing an application's robustness and tolerance for failures in its natural environment can be difficult or impossible. Developers and testers buy tool suites to simulate load, write programs that fill memory, and create large files on disk, all to determine the behavior of their application under test in a hostile and unpredictable environment. Herbert Thompson describes and demonstrates new, cutting edge methods for simulating stress that are more efficient and reliable than current industry practices. Using Windows Media Player and Winamp as examples, he demonstrates how new methods of fault injection can be used to simulate stress on Windows applications.

  • Runtime fault injection as a testing and assessment tool
  • Cutting edge stress-testing techniques
  • An in-depth case study on runtime fault injection
Herbert Thompson, Security Innovation

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